


Wake Us Up to the Next Life

by frechi123, Hamino (frechi123)



Series: Alex and Friends in the Modern Times [1]
Category: Hamilton - Miranda
Genre: Aaron shoots Alex for another reason that is not dueling, All meet up later, Before the short couple stories, Eventual Romance, Friends to Lovers, John and Abby are not married, Maria went by her maiden name of Lewis, Peggy's full name is Margarita, Possible sequel, Rediscovering Friends, References the Tunnels AU story, The fourteen of them are not enemies within one another
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-04-22
Updated: 2019-01-15
Packaged: 2019-04-05 15:44:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,102
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14047533
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/frechi123/pseuds/frechi123, https://archiveofourown.org/users/frechi123/pseuds/Hamino
Summary: Alexander, John, Lafayette, Hercules, Aaron, Theodosia, Charles, Samuel, Thomas, James, Angelica, Eliza, Peggy, and Maria all come back to life in the 21st century as college students. From here on out, as their memories come back to them, they deal with trying to fit in with the times and learning about their past legacies, as well as finding people that didn't fit into their recent past.Sequel to "The Tunnelsquad" series, mentions some of the other life stories.





	1. Triple A Reunion

**Author's Note:**

> So basically I am trying to write a story with the fourteen main characters of my Hamilton stories. This is the 21st century version (and this time they have been reincarnated).
> 
> There will be spin offs to this main story later, maybe a sequel, for now this is just for the couples I've set up between the Revelationaries (feel free to kill me later):
> 
> \- Alex and Aaron  
> \- Angelica and Theo  
> \- Thomas and James  
> \- Samuel and Lee  
> \- Lafayette and John  
> \- Peggy and Hercules  
> \- Eliza and Maria
> 
> \- Ben and Jon's will come MUCH later.
> 
> Also, when told in their initial groups, Alexander, John, or Eliza typically tells the story. Otherwise, the titles and notes will (usually) give a better hint.
> 
> If they ever text each other they will use these names:
> 
> Aaron - OohBurrn  
> Angelica - WorkItGirl  
> Alexander - NonStopHam  
> Charles - Wheeeeeee  
> Eliza - HelplessAndKind  
> Hercules - TailorInParentis  
> James M. - MadHatter  
> John - TurtleKingdom  
> Lafayette - TallBaguette  
> Maria - RedMystery  
> Peggy - LongForgotten  
> Samuel - PreachDreams  
> Theodosia - DearTheo  
> Thomas - VirginiaMac 
> 
> Benjamin - B-Dog  
> Jonathan - J-Bomb  
> America - "A"  
> James R. - TheLegitOne  
> Frances - RockHardWar  
> Tench - FamilyFirm  
> Wilkinson (James W.) - MyCreepyFace  
> Marshall (John M.) - SwampyMarsh  
> Martha M. - MulanFan
> 
> Phillip - HamWithPride  
> Theo Jr. - LittleAngelT  
> Georges - FlamboyantShow  
> George E. - MovieMadness (He will only be mentioned in sites he was a part of, since he is dead in this life)
> 
> ****Washingtons don't have any interesting ones!****

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Alexander wakes up to the pain of flooding memories, explores around the old town, and runs into Aaron and Angelica at My Shot (of Espresso). They become roommates and catch up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first few chapters focus on certain viewpoints and them getting their memories back along with meeting up with friends.

I shoot up out of bed.

I remember everything. And I'm getting a headache over it.

Whether that's because everything floods back to me really fast or the last memory I remember having been Aaron shooting me between the ribs (for good reason, I promise), I can't tell you.

I reach over on my nightstand to grab my glasses. I've been at this "new life" for a few weeks now. Yeah, this system just sort of inserted me into a college student's body instead of making me start over all the way this time and for the past few days I've been made into a confused walking joke here at Princeton.

Well, at least I can say I finally got here.

I've been hoping to find any of my past friends (and maybe enemies) from some of the other lives. So far, none of them have turned up. But I've been very persistent, you see, and people don't know what to make of me.

What can I say? I drop knowledge.

I swing my feet over the bed and pad over to my computer. This is one of those things that made me a running joke because I'd tried to write all over it with my pen as opposed to using the keyboard to type it out.

Which is also why I never got a roommate. Constant belittling all day long? No thanks.

I mostly use my computer to surf the web since I pride myself on getting ahead of my work. Right now, I've finished everything all for my first semester. The teachers say that would give me second semester when they finish planning it out. Oh yeah, I'm that far.

One pop up catches my eye today. It's an advertisement for a new coffee shop just a few blocks down, called My Shot (of Espresso). When do ads like that ever show up? Hardly ever. But whatever.

A quick dress up montage later and I'm zooming down the halls of Princeton, ignoring everyone's watchful eyes as I go. I know they're judging me, as they usually do. I won't let them get a rise out of me today. For some reason, I'm in an exceptionally good mood. I have a feeling that something nice is about to happen to me.

I take a quick stop at Hollendaise Park. It still seems the same as it was all those years ago except they really cleaned up around here. The old cherry tree is still alive and kicking and I decide to sit under it again for old times sake. I remember when me and my Rev Set would hang out here. Oh, how I hope I'll find them.

Somehow I find myself at Main Town Square, sampling all the wares from the old bakery. Man, this place really doesn't change in a hundred years or so, give or take, except for the people, of course, and even then, people get reincarnated around here all the time, like Jonathan Bellamy and Benjamin Tallmadge, and they recognized me already, all right. I wouldn't have called them friends or enemies, more like acquaintances; well, in the last life, I would have said so, but they are much worse here.

In this life, they are Jon Bellhop and Ben Timmons. They don't go to Princeton but they were here last week crashing one of our parties, and I was, of course, off in the corner trying to get the hang of things on my laptop (I had finally mastered that a few days before), when they stumbled up to me. With drinks in their hands, of course, and then they spilled them because they actually were tripping over themselves being idiots, and they got them all over my laptop and myself, causing me to get electrocuted. (Don't worry, I'm fine, the only damages that night were a slightly charred body and no more dignity.)

Anyway, I've finally reached the coffee shop and am just about to rush inside when the door suddenly swings back at me and I hit the ground hard. When I sit up, I realize that, through the door, another guy is on the floor as well with a pool of coffee around him. A girl is standing over him, looking at him in shock, before looking at me with a slightly angry expression.

Whoops.

"Congratulations, you must be the biggest klutz in the world!" the girl hisses at me, helping her friend before marching outside and staring me down.  _Why does this seem so familiar?_ "Did you think you would get away with knocking my friend over?"

"Angie, don't worry about it." The boy has come outside to join us and puts a hand on her shoulder. "I don't think he meant to do it." Then he glances down at me. "Did you?"

My words find their way back to my throat. "Of course not! I'm really sorry about that," I say, face palming. The last thing I need is more people not liking me. 

He holds out a hand to me and I take it. As soon as we make contact, my vision goes white and I find myself falling... 

***

_"Aaron, come on! We don't have any other choice!" I turn around so that I'm not facing him anymore. "Do it!"_

_I can hear the tears in his voice. "I can't! You know I can't do this, Alexander!"_

_That's when I turn back and come up to him. The gun is trembling in his hand and he's looking down. I put my hands on his shoulders and he looks up at me with a melancholic stare._

_"Hercules, Maria, and Thomas have already killed their way out of this torture, of this life, in hopes of a better one! The others are planning theirs as we speak! Don't you want to get out of here?" I ask._

_He tries to look down again, but I use one of my hands to keep his chin up. He sighs._

_"Of course I do," says Aaron. "But I'm scared. What if we don't come back from this?"_

_I take one of Aaron's hands and place a kiss there. "We will. And we'll find each other again, I promise."_

_"Aaron! Alexander! Hurry!"_

_Angelica's voice rings out from behind us. We turn around and there she is. Her neck has a deep gash in it, the knife she carries bloodied all over the blade._

_"They're coming, you know," she says, slowly dropping to her knees. "Don't let them get you, or we don't get another chance. We must not die at the hands of our enemies. but of ourselves or those close. That's what the Reincarnation Scroll says." She starts to lie down as if going to sleep. "I'll see you on the other side..."_

_"HEY!" Roman suddenly appears in the doorway, "GET THEM!"_

_"Aaron!" I scream, before I finally feel the pain. I crumple to the ground, holding my rib cage with a look of triumph._

_***_

I don't even notice when the girl takes hold of my other hand to help pull me up until my vision clears. They're both staring at me with looks of fearful yet disbelieving recognition, as I now give them.

"Aaron? Angelica?" I ask, eyes still wide, as they finally pull me to my feet. They nod solemnly.

 _"Alexander?"_ they echo back to me, in shock. I nod vigorously, still holding their hands.

"Yes." I pull them closer and we're all tangled up in a group hug. "I'm here and so are you guys. We did it. We're okay."

We're holding one another at arm's length with tears in our eyes, then we're blubbering on about some of our experiences here, and then we're finally linking arms with one another and marching inside the shop.

Where Ben and Jon are both standing at the counter.

"Whoa!" I cry out, stopping abruptly, yanking back Aaron and Angelica in the process. They turn and look at me in confusion and I point at the two annoyances at the counter.

"Someone you know?" asks Aaron.

"More like someone  _we knew_ ," I say, quietly. "Two very specific annoying war someones, in fact."

Then they turn around to us and I already want to shrink away before things get any worse.

"Well, well," Ben says, as he and Jon saunter over. "What do we have here? Our little deep-fried loser."

"How did you two find out about this place?" I roll my eyes. The place is fairly quiet even if it is new. "As far as I know, you're all football and no technology. 'Too geeky,' you've said."

"Well, certainly a  _geek_ like you knows there are other ways to get word to people," Jon says. "You know, like the spoken word. Might want to try it again sometime."

I cringe. It's true that I've lost my talkative nature upon coming here, a curse in itself. Angelica scrunches her face up in disgust and Aaron rolls his eyes all too knowingly. "Bellamy. Tallmadge." He crosses his arms as he spits out their names. "I didn't know you were in this time too."

They finally seem to notice Aaron and Angelica on either side of me and tilt their heads at them in curiosity. "Who are you two?"

"Oh, like you don't know," says Angelica. Then she thinks for a moment, and then shrugs, while pointing towards Aaron. "Okay, well, you may not know me, but surely you know Aaron Burr here?"

"Ah, yes. The indecisive one." Ben punches Aaron playfully in the shoulder, but he winces because he's no good at doing stuff like that softly. "Nice to see you again, Burr."

Jon takes Angelica's hand and kisses the back of it lightly. "And who is this young lady?"

Aaron and I exchange an all knowing glance with each other before looking at Angelica. Her face has shrunk in on itself and that never means anything good.

She yanks her hand away. "My  _name_ is Angelica Schuyler, and what on earth do you think you're doing?!  _Don't interrupt me_ ," she says, holding up her hand at Bellamy before he can interject, immmediately tearing into him and Ben like no one's business.

"She's heard it all before," Aaron says to me. "People have called her crazy all over this town, even James Raynolds, who is apparently here as well. It's rich coming from him. You have no idea how it feels to be the oddballs around here."

"Uh," I say, eloquently, pointing at the scene in front of me, "I think I have a pretty good idea, courtesy of these two idiots. They don't even go to my school! They go to King's College, which I can't even believe is still up and going either. And a few miles down the road."

"We're getting transferred out of there," he says. "Said we were too smart for the school. It's weird how we never ran into those two." Aaron side glances me. "Hey, we might even end up going to Princeton, if we're lucky."

"That would be so cool!" I say, beaming. "We could all be roommates! Princeton's got some co-ed dorms, and they allow up to five people in a room!"

Aaron laughs. "Now that is a cool school."

" _And don't you ever forget it!_ " We turn and see Angelica dusting her hands off while Ben and Jon shake like leaves. She approaches us then, linking her arms through ours and saying, "Let's go. We need somewhere right now with less of a creep factor."

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

"You did  _what_ on your first day?!" I shriek, with laughter, at Angelica, who looks down, blushing profusely, while Aaron looks on in amusement.

The three of us have made it back to my dorm, which is now actually all of ours, since they do A) indeed transfer here from King's and B) fill out the roommate sign up form requesting my room to team up in. I'm sitting on the bed, which is a really wide single as opposed to two small ones on opposite sides of the room like most. Angelica is beside me, hanging off of it upside down and Aaron stands at the edge in front of us. 

"She paraded around the school, dissing off every dude that tried to hit on her.  _Every. Last. One,_ " Aaron says, sitting on the edge. "She got all of them under her fearful command for a couple of weeks until Dean Adams stepped in. I'm surprised he even did, considering how lazy he is."

"And how absent he  _was_ ," Angelica adds, sitting up, "in literally most of his duties. I know that Dean Adams was _John_ Adams back in the day."

"I would write an open letter to him about it, but I'm afraid I've lost some of my writer's touch, and my speaking one," I say, glumly, with my chin on my hand. They both stare at me in absolute shock, surprise, and silence.

"You, of all people, have lost your debating nature?! Is that what those two goons meant earlier?" Angelica says finally.

I nod. "I've been tongue-tied all semester. I've gone all these weeks while scarcely speaking to anyone. It's lonely, I admit, but it's hard to make friends when people are laughing at you for being incompetent with the times."

Aaron says, "you should have seen the stuff me and Angie were wearing for a few weeks. We weren't dressed with the times, we were dressed with _our_ times. You should have heard what people were saying. 'Where do you cometh from, 1661?' You know, all sorts of stupid stuff like that."

"Like our last names? I'm not a fan of Alexander Hilton. Apparently it comes from some hotel or something." I roll my eyes. "And you guys? What'd you get?"

"Aaron Bourne," he says, crossing his arms. "Some actor or character has this name. I can't really remember which it was, not that it matters."

"And I'm Angelica Simon-Schuster," she says. "Named after some book company. Plus my mom told me there was a messy marriage when she adopted me. She hates talking about it." She thinks for a moment. "Have you found anyone else here, Alex?" she asks next, crossing her arms and pointing at me.

I sigh. "No. And trust me, I've been very persistent in looking."

Angelica giggles. "We wouldn't expect anything less, Alexander." Then she sits up and slides to the edge beside me. "What now?"

A banging on the door startles all of three off us off the bed and right onto the floor. No one makes a move until the banging comes again, and Aaron gets up to answer it. Angelica and I sit up on the floor to watch.

"No one's even out here - _aaaah!!!_ " and then Aaron's back on the floor again and we're scrambling over to him trying to calm him down and then there's laughing in the doorway so we all look up and Ben and Jon are outside laughing their heads off.

"Why are you clowns here?" Angelica asks coolly. They stiffen a bit at this before laughing again. We raise ourselves off the floor to sitting positions and cross our arms expectantly.

"They haven't heard, it looks like," Ben says, turning to Jon with a playful punch.

"Nope, not at all," Jon echoes.

"Heard what?" Aaron asks, keeping his voice level. Good thing he speaks up and not me, or I'd be on my feet and yanking them down to my level demanding the same answer.

Jon sidesteps a bit. "Apparently King's College isn't doing a good job of fending itself from other schools and Princeton is on a snatching spree. Let's just say that we're your next-door dorm mates now."

"What?!" I yell out. I jump up to my feet, holding my arms down in fists so Aaron and Angelica can still reach up and use them to pull themselves up. "You can't be serious!"

"Oh, we're very serious," says Ben, poking me right in the chest. "You're going to be seeing a lot more of us around here." Then they walk off to their room and we can still hear them even after they've shut their door.

I shut the door and then start hitting my head against it. "Nooo.... no no no no...." I moan, refusing to stop.

"Whoa!" Aaron pulls my head away from the door and leads me back to the bed. "Are you trying to give yourself a concussion, Alexander?"

I shake my head. "No, I'm hoping to lose some memory so I don't remember that I heard what I thought I just heard. I mean these guys literally fried me on their stupid accidental klutziness. How is that going to fare to what they do on purpose??" I lower my head into my hands, still feeling Aaron's carding through my hair. "This is not going to be a good year."

"We will get through this," Angelica says from behind me. I lift my head to turn back and look at her, and she's lying across the bed this time, with her arms crossed in front of her and her chin in the gap. "We can't let these creeps ruin our chance at answers or a non-life threatening existence. Remember, we escaped those tunnels long ago, and from what I hear they finally buried them. All those people are long gone now, Alexander."

"She's right," says Aaron. "And remember those legacies of ours we fought for waaaay back when? Did you know we're in the history books? Remember when that was what you wanted?"

I remember singing that clearly in one of our favorite songs, 'My Shot'. " 'Don't be surprised if your history book mentions me,' ", I sing softly. "Of course I remember that. And I've heard there's a musical going around about it. We really made a difference, didn't we?"

Angelica puts hers hands on my shoulders. "You bet! Come on, let's go to the library and read about them!"

Little did we know that when we left there, on our way back, that someone watches us in the shadows...


	2. Barking Up The Wrong Trees

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Eliza and Peggy get adopted by the Simon-Schusters, find Maria, Hercules, and Thomas along the way, clear up some misunderstandings, and keep themselves hidden from the Triple A Squad, trying not to jump the gun too soon. They are all students at King's College, currently, and James Reynolds and America Simpson do not make it easy on them.

"Tell me what kind of name Simon-Schuster is, Peg?" I ask, turning towards her as I lean in our college house doorway, arms crossed with a pointed glance at my sister.

Just days ago we are both adopted by a couple with the last name of this, and their first daughter had been nowhere in sight or in spoken word. "She just left for Princeton," they'd said. "We can give you two her number if you wanna call her sometime."

We almost didn't know we were reincarnated until we touched each other at the shelter and had all our memories come back at us like a tidal wave. I screamed for a while because I remembered shooting myself in the mouth. Good thing we were inside or we would have crashed and concussed.

"I can't tell you what kind of name that is, Liz, except that it's ours now," says Peggy, with a slow head shake. I think she gets it from me. "But nevertheless, we don't have to worry about classes until next week since we're recent transfers. Want to explore some part of campus?"

I nod. "Sure. Grab your messenger bag and let's go."

We march around campus trying not to get lost. We're tired of being made fools just because we don't always understand modern times. Getting reincarnated is quite tough to wrap your head around, and getting with the times you are stuck in is quite annoying to figure out. It took me a week to figure out my cell phone, and Peggy still screams at the flash when she tries to take a picture.

We find ourselves in King's Square sitting in the grassy circle that is in the center. Peggy is snacking on a granola bar in her messenger bag and I'm using the binoculars that were in there, trying to get past the trees to see things.

"Wait, what's that?" I say to myself. I focus them in more and see a figure up in the tallest tree. Or at least a whiff of their beanie hanging out of a branch. They appear to be struggling. I trailed down the large tree and saw two more figures at the base. One of them has a rather curly afro while the other has a long red dress flowing to her ankles. Their dark complexions have flushed expressions across them, trying to help their friend out.

"Herc, how did you even get into the tree?!" yells the afro guy.

Peggy taps on me. "Uh, are you looking at ground birds?"

"No..." I say, pointing straight ahead. "Look at that tree right there."

I move the binoculars so I am looking through one side so Peggy can look through the other.

"Thomas, now is not the time for this!" calls the man from the tree. "Now, will you or Maria call some HELP or get me down from here?!"

"Gosh! He's in a pickle," says Peggy. "Maybe we should go help him?"

"And how well do you think that will work out?" I respond snarkily. "We're not trying to get crushed here."

"And staring at us without trying is any better?"

I lower the binoculars in embarrassment. The red dress girl is now standing in front of us, hands on her hips, scowl evident on her lips, which is just as red as her dress is. Hey eyes say something else, however; they analyze me with a look I can't quite place. Recognition? Then why do I vaguely recognize that look?

"I told you they might want help!" says Peggy. She stands up just as I take a swat at her. "I'll come help you guys."

The girl, apparently Maria, glares at me. "Sure, I'd like your help." She takes her hand and leads her to where her friends are. Peggy jolts a bit, but she relaxes as she heads over with Maria to her friends.

Meanwhile, I just stare after them in disbelief. Not at them, but at myself. How can I be so rude? It's so unlike me! I stand up slowly, and run at a mad dash back inside.

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

Now in one of the campus bathrooms, I hide under one of the sink cabinets and cry. It's times like this that I'm glad I'm so skinny, no one ever really goes looking under here except the janitors and that's only on the weekends.

"Eliza? I know you're in there!" calls a voice from outside the door.

"Go away, Peggy," I say with a sniffle and an edge. "I'm not in the mood to hear you talk to me."

"She's not the one that wants to talk," echoes another voice. I realize in horror that it's Maria out there, with my sister.

I immediately become so nervous. Why on earth does she even want to talk to me? Last time I checked, I haven't exactly made the best impression on her.

The door swings open, and in come two pairs of feet: golden heels for Peggy and bare feet for Maria. I didn't even notice that she didn't have any shoes on. These times are making me awfully cruel.

"She's not here," Maria says over the squeaks of stall doors. "All these stalls are empty."

"Oh, she doesn't hide in stalls; that's too predictable," Peggy replies. "She always hides under the sink cabinets or in vents, if the bathroom has any. In this case, it's the former." Her shoes approached the cabinet. "Eliza? Come out. Someone wants to talk to you."

I sniffle again. "I don't want to come out." This has to be some sort of trap. I move back further, trying to take care not to lean too hard on the pipes. "If you want to talk, do it out there. I'm not coming out."

"Please?" Maria says. "I really need to test something."

I peer out of the cabinet curiously. "Exactly what are you testing?" I ask, only my head and left shoulder exposed out the door.

Without warning, Maria grabs my shoulder and I shriek. I fall back against the pipes...

***

_"Angelica, what is going on?!" I shriek. The ceiling is raining rocks all around us over the troops marching over our heads, trying to get our heads. Irony for you._

_She's brandishing a knife. She holds it up for me and Peggy, who is standing beside me, to see. "You've read the Reincarnation Scrolls, right?" she asks. "We must slay ourselves if we want a chance at another life, preferably years after this one!" She looks around. "I have to go find Aaron and Alexander! See if you can find anyone else!"_

_With that, she runs out of the room. We run out after her and turn a different corner. We run past one room in particular, and stop short. Looking inside, we see Hercules, Maria, and Thomas, facing out at a window. Down below there is nothing."_

_"There's a Further to this Deeper?!" Peggy cries out, as the other turn and see us. "Seriously?!"_

_"Yep," says Thomas, looking forlorn. "And we're using this as our ticket out."_

_I shudder. "I think I'd rather shoot myself in the head or stab my way out."_

_Herc points into the corner. "Use that stuff. We were going to, but we thought we'd use this way out."_

_Peggy stumbles toward them, closer to Hercules, suddenly. "Why?"_

_Hercules sighs, and hops off the ledge for a quick moment. He takes Peggy in his arms and strokes her hair. "I don't know, baby. I just don't know."_

_I look at Thomas and Maria as Herc makes his way back over. "What if we fail?" I ask nervously._

_Maria marches forward and embraces me. "We won't fail. We're going to fall to torture if we let them get us. We've come too far to back out now. We'll see you on the other side." One kiss to the cheek and then she turns away and jumps off with Thomas and Herc, the three of them linked in a human chain._

_I raise a hand to my face and Peggy grabs the spear. "You don't want to look..."_

_I run out of the room just as the shing of metal is heard and a body hits the floor. I turn all the corners I see until I reach our old captivity space and slam the bars. Then I raise the gun to my mouth, insert.... and fire._

_"Hey!" screams Geronita, but it fades fast. "Find the rest of them! And preferably ALIVE!"_

 ***

I wake up feeling absolutely soaked and something pressing against my forehead, which moves away quickly. I almost scream, thinking it's blood I'm soaked in, but it's water. Above me, Maria and Peggy are both standing over me with worried expressions doting their features.

"What happened?" I ask, wearily and dazed, with my hand over my mouth again. I squint a bit and tilt my head as best I can.

"You hit one of the pipes! The water went spilling everywhere!" says Peggy. "You could barely wedge yourself out; you squeezed yourself too tight into the crevice!"

"I had to call Hercules and Thomas for backup," Maria adds. "We got you up here while they called the janitor. They called the plumber also and he's fixing it now."

"I can't believe you didn't tell us you guys were here," comes another voice off to the side. Maria and Peggy both help me sit up, and I turn to see Herc and Thomas leaning against our closet door. Herc continues, "you watched me struggle in that tree!" He says it playfully as he doesn't want me to think that he is still upset. He's known for never holding a grudge.

"What are you guys doing here?" I ask in astonishment. "Not that I'm not happy to see you, because I am! But aren't they strict about gender dorm mixing here?" I think for a moment. "And sorry about that, by the way."

Herc holds up a hand. "No big deal, Liz. It's fine. The girls had to sneak us up here when the watch-women went on their lunch break."

"They are really adamant on rushing those," says Maria. "They take their jobs very seriously around here."

"If they really were serious, they wouldn't have let four of their students get taken off campus," Thomas points out with an eye roll. "They lost two of their smartest ones and two of their most athletic ones."

"Did you know any of them?" I ask, wringing out my hair between my hands.

Herc nods. "I knew the jocks. I believe they are Jon Bellhop and Ben Timmons. I'm pretty sure they were in one of our past lives, because when I saw them, they looked familiar to me."

"Hmm, no names come to mind at the moment," says Maria. "As for the smart ones, no one knows their last names. They chose to keep them secret. But their first names are Aaron and Angelica."

All five of us look at one another. We're all thinking the same thing: that Aaron and Angelica have possibly been reincarnated and we know where to find them!

"We need to take this in caution," Herc says. He's always been like this. "We don't want to start making assumptions about it just yet. The three of us have been doing that for weeks and now people think we're all weird."

"That makes five of us," Peggy says glumly, "even though Eliza and I are probably on a less severe scale. We only just got here to D.C., after all."

All five of us sit in silence for a few moments. Thinking about certain past lives of ours always gets us in a bad mood considering how bad some of them have treated us. Tunnels, extreme poverty, and murder mysteries wrapped within larger scale secrets; it does NOT get any more stressful than this. Having some our fellow reincarnates following us, like James Reynolds, Benjamin Tallmadge, and Jonathan Bellamy, did not help matters, considering they were hardly ever nice to us.

"Hey," I say suddenly. I jump up off the bed and shake myself dry. "We shouldn't let this get to us. Let's go out to get our minds off of this. I heard that there's this new shop opening up called Non-Stop Frozen Yogurt. Sounds tasty."

Herc walks up to me and gently squeezes out my skirt. "You might want to change first, Liz. I don't think they serve soaking customers."

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

An hour later (through an apparently well needed dress up montage from Herc to me) and we're all sitting at a booth by the large window and snacking on fro-yo: I have vanilla, Thomas gets cookies and cream, Herc gets chocolate, Maria has strawberry sprinkles, and Peggy's has a huge mess of gummy worms across the minty surface.

"Why didn't someone invent this sooner?" Thomas wonders, stirring his fro yo around. "This stuff is genius."

Peggy and Hercules raise their cups into the air. "Hear, hear!"

Maria and I glance out the window and almost choke upon what we see outside. Across the street there are three figures walking hand in hand carry books amidst all three of them. They all look familiar for some reason...

"Isn't that Aaron and Angelica out there?" Maria whispers, to me and Herc, since we're on the same side of the booth. Herc nods, and then Maria says, "Who's that in between them?"

I gasp. "That looks like Alexander!"

Herc and Maria widen their eyes. Meanwhile, Peggy and Thomas finally look outside and see what we are talking about.

"We have to stop them!" Peggy exclaims, and almost gets out of the booth. Herc reaches over and holds her back.

"Whoa there! We can't just go jump on them!" he says firmly. "We've been wrong with lookalikes before; I'd rather not go back to that so soon, okay?"

Peggy slumps down. "Okay, fine. Let's head back before we somehow get our heads bitten off by dorm mothers."

p>}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

As soon as we're in the door things get ugly. Standing in our way is a clearly reincarnated version of James Reynolds. Peggy and I hide behind the other three so he can't see us.

"Reynolds," Thomas hisses. "Or should I say Reagan?"

James wags a finger. "Now, now, Jefferson, we're among fellow reincarnates here. You'd hate for me to call you Johnson, wouldn't you?"

"Get to the point," Maria says, tapping her foot.

"You shouldn't even be talking, Miss Lewis - or Langford to you, I suppose," he says, level voiced. "I don't answer to you anymore. Although, I never really did that when we were together, did I?"

Herc crosses his arms. "So who do you actually listen to?"

James raises an eyebrow. "Mulligan. I was expecting more leaves for you to pull out when my boys tossed you up that tree earlier." He smirks. "I would think with your last name being Maple now that leaves would love to stick on you."

"That's namist," Thomas says with an eye roll. "Move, you're in our way."

James points at them. "Not so fast." He walks up to them and pushes the boys aside. "Well, well," he smirks, finally eyeing Peggy and me. "What have we here?"

We cross our arms. "Nothing," we say firmly. "We haven't a thing to say to you."

"Schuylers," he says with a shake of his head. "I would know those voices of yours anywhere. Although, I do hear you are Simon-Schusters now. Of course you find a way to sneak back into the limelight."

Peggy narrows her eyes. "Are we done here? We'd like to go inside." She gently moves past us and shoves James out of our way, marching past him. The rest of us snicker softly as we follow along behind her.

Unfortunately he doesn't take it very well. Hours later, when we're all in our rooms and asleep, I'm walking up to get a midnight snack, about to wake Peggy to join me when I feel flat surface and not a body. I glance down and see that she's not there anymore, her sheets completely thrown about, and cry out. I look everywhere, but she is nowhere. I burst out the door, glad that we live on the farther wing away from the rest of the girls. 

"Peggy?!" I whisper-shout into the hall. "Where could she be?!"

"Eliza, what's wrong??" Maria's head pokes out from her room a few doors away. She's the only one that can stand being anywhere near us. "Why are you out here so late? It's 1:30 in the morning, and I just had to deal with a stressful text calm down session with Thomas."

I run up to her door and yank her out of it by her nightdress. "It's Peggy!" I yell. "She's not in our room."

"What?!" Maria hisses. "How could she just get out?"

"She didn't!" I say. "There were signs of a silent struggle evident in that room! Her sheets were thrown everywhere! She wouldn't ever do that, she's such a neat freak. Someone snuck in and took her from our room. I have a bad feeling James is behind this."

As if on cue, a ping came in from my phone. I glance at it to get a text from an unknown number:

 

_**Oh, aren't you a smart cookie? But your sister sure isn't. She should learn to respect her elders and maybe she wouldn't end up so blue.** _

_**-A** _

 

"Uh, do you know who A is?" I ask, passing the phone over to Maria. "Or who you think it could be?"

Maria taps her chin in thought. "I think it's America Simpson. She's super annoying, but super influential in this school. But she will do almost anything James asks of her. It's pathetic, really, but the things people do for love." 

"How are we going to find her and Peggy?" I ask. "They could be anywhere."

_Ping!_

I glance down at my phone. America has sent another message:

_**Where's the best place to humiliate someone? Out in the open, of course! You would not believe how easy it was to get this crowd out here throwing blue paint! After all, they already think you and your weird bunch of friends are strange! Why don't you do us all a favor and leave? P.S. you should know this place quite well now.... after all, you did run off blubbering like a big baby here!** _

"We can't leave the school now," Maria says glumly. "The swiping incidents actually got them cracking down on their security. No more random school transfers. They won't even let us leave campus now for holiday! That's how paranoid they are."

"I think I know where Peggy might be, then," I say. "And I don't even want to know how America knows that I ran off crying considering she wasn't even there!"

I run over to the window and peer out. Our room has a stellar view of King's Square. Outside we can see a quite large crowd of people surprisingly not making any noise. They must have perfected it. Which is terrifyingly creepy by the way.

Peggy is tied to the same tree that Hercules had been put into, right at the trunk in an x formation with some of the branches. Her mouth is covered up with a few thick layers of tape but we can still hear her just so all the same because the tree is right by the window.

"Get the boys," I say without turning back. "We're going to need help."

 

"HA HA!" We could hear people laughing now as the four of us get closer to the crowd. Upon further examination we realize that there are soft splatting sounds about as they throw balloons filled with paint at my sister. How humiliating!

"Hey!" I cry out, running over to her as they prepare to reel back again. "Stop it! What are you doing?! Whoa!" I duck to avoid getting hit by a balloon. 

The crowd parts, and a girl with honey blond long hair and designer magenta robe and slippers steps through with one hand on her hip, and the other half in the air tossing a balloon gingerly in the air with an evil smirk. I lock eyes with her, eyes narrowed.

"These people do nearly anything we ask of them," she says smugly, and James suddenly appears beside her. It intimidates me a bit before the boys and Maria appear beside me guarding Peggy.

"Can you not? Why can't you idiots be mature for once?" Thomas snaps. He exclaims when he is suddenly drenched head to toe in paint. Everyone glances at him as he slowly begins to lose it.

"This robe was soooooo Gucci...: he says slowly, reaching out to take 5 balloons from people nearby. "You. Are. SOOOOO. DEAD!!!" He launches all of them at America and James who exclaim indignantly. I grab one from someone else and hit America square in the face, yelling, "That's what you get for attacking my sister!!"

In moments it's a full out rumble, with blue paint flying over everyone in the courtyard, and Peggy somehow getting cut down in the confusion. It takes an hour before all the balloons are gone and we're all drenched, with some of us, including America and Thomas, crying in the courtyard. And it's right then that Dean Monroe rushes downstairs, with some of the other staff in the tow, with his face as red as a tomato's.

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" he bellows, causing everyone to look at him. America and Thomas stop crying and are horrified along with the rest of us. "Why are all of you covered in blue paint?!"

It's Peggy who speaks up first. She points at America and James. "Those idiots tied me up to a tree and got people to throw balloons at me!" She pointed at her stained hair which was also all over the place. "I'd like to be my natural brown haired self, thank you!"

"Where's Dean Adams?" someone calls from the crowd. Dean Monroe turns to address them.

"He's been transferred out," he says. "He's at another college now." Dean Monroe turns back to Peggy and raises an eyebrow. "And who are you, young lady?"

"I'm Margarita Simon-Schuster," she says, with an eloquent curtsy as best she can manage. "My sister, Eliza, and I have just enrolled here earlier today and it's already a disaster!"

"Well, duh! You tie yourself to trees," America says. "Pretty stupid, if you ask me. Mr. Monroe, you don't believe this troublemaker," she bats her eyelashes, "do you?"

Maria puts her hands on her hips and takes a step towards America. "Oh, what do you know?! You got us up at the crack of dawn and started this whole mess. You and James! All because she moved you out of the way!" She points at James for this last part.

"ALL RIGHT!" Dean Monroe screams. "You seven - " he points at Peggy, Thomas, America, Hercules, James, Maria, and me - "stay right here where you are. Everyone else, follow the staff inside!"

After everyone clears, he points at America and James. "You two stand off to the side for now."

They grump and stomp away. He then turns to the rest of us. "I'd do my best not to mess with those two," he says, voice wavering a bit. "They're quite influential here at King's College. We've been trying to get rid of them for years and it never works out. Just promise me you'll stay out of their way?"

"We try," says Hercules. "But they like getting in our way. Just earlier today I got tossed up a tree by them and their little supporters."

"Oh my," the Dean says, turning pale. "I have to up my game now, don't I?"

With that, he rushed off, yelling at America and James to follow after him. The five of us stare after them for a few moments.

"I feel bad for him," Thomas says finally. "He's scared at his own school!"

"And it's only going to get worse for us if we stay here any longer!" I say worriedly. "We need to get out of here, no doubt about it."

"We can't leave, remember?" Maria says, biting her lip. "Besides, he has leverage over me, and if I leave he'll spill my secrets to the world." She doesn't have to tell us she is talking about James.

Thomas slams a fist into his hand. "We have to get leverage on them too, knock them down a peg. But none of us are really good at that sort of thing." Then he thinks for a moment. "So we're going to go enlist in some certain help. And I think we might know where to find them."

Hercules sighs. "If you're thinking what I think you're thinking, then we have to take this slowly. Like I said, we don't want people think we're any crazier than we already are. But I guess that doesn't mean we can't go find out our theory."

All the rest of us cheer. "What are we waiting for?!" I cry out. I grab his hand and pull him along. He grabs Peggy's, she grabs Maria's, and she gets Thomas's so we're all running in a human chain. "Next stop: Princeton!"


	3. Back to the Norm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> John and Charles are on the run, escaping long ongoing abuse, nursing new wounds, and starving for days until Lafayette and Samuel find them. The four of them end up homeschooling themselves via a computer, which leads them out to Guns and Ships Hospital accepting volunteer work and trying to help James and Theodosia get back to the outside.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Keep in mind that the characters introduced here live on the other side of D.C., away from the rest of the characters. They will find a way to meet up later.

"You're WORTHLESS TO ME!!!"

 _Wham!_ Another hit. And this time, it's Charles who takes it and not me. I have to do something! He honestly can't take much more...

"Stop it!" I yell out. I run in front of Charles and throw my hands in front to protect him. "He didn't even do anything!"

"Yes, he did," sneers Quincy, the one's who's responsible for why neither of us can sleep at night, why we're almost skin and bones now, and why we have actually hated this life more than the ones we had finally escaped (at least in this moment). "He decided to  _exist_ , and so did you, and my father had to take an interest in you two and pawn them off to me when they got Princeton up and running again. You two maggots are the reason I have no life!"

Charles crossed his arms. "Oh, please, you can't blame us for all your pathetic people problems. You're not exactly the most pleasant person to be around, yeah?"

I gasp. Charles has usually never been that sassy, and the tunneling life we lived was walking proof of that. He was whipped and broken by King George, some of the worst torture to endure at any time. He was starting to look the exact same as the day we found him in the castle.

Not that mine had been any better. Everyone in my immediate family was against me or too scared to go against my dad. Even being reincarnated didn't stop very pale reminders of my abused past from starting to creep back onto my skin. You should have heard me. No one missed my pained screams when I rolled up my sleeves and unexpectedly saw them. The only upside to this one is that my dad could never be reincarnated because he was stabbed by King George's men. Maria, Alex, and I had to witness that unspeakable act. Ugh, even when I hate him, I have to feel sorry.

"Excuse me?!" Quincy bellows, and we both snap up to him, forgetting he is even here. He's bringing out two whips from his winter coat and preparing to strike. We shiver, barely from cold and mostly from fear, expecting the worst.

***

We were smuggled here to D.C. just a year ago. Before this we were in New York, and before that on Nevis, ironically Alexander's old home place, looking for work because neither of us could have afforded to get out here ourselves. And we couldn't quite write our way out as he had. So for the moment, we had been determined to try to make the most of our circumstances and stay on Nevis even if we were certain we would never see our friends again.

Then the Adamses came to the island and everything could not have been worse.

They were looking for slaves. And of course they singled us out. Why? Because they had actually  _recognized us_ from a past life. Namely, our very first ones. I remembered the Adams Administration. Everyone else remembered how he had torn older Adams to shreds with that open letter. The younger Adams found us later since most of us were pretty much dead by the time he came to office (me, Alex, Peggy), in our old times at New Jersey. When the two of them had been shot down in a hit-and-run we believed it to be the end of them. After all, the scrolls say you must die by your own hands or the ones of people you care for. And those two sure as hell didn't kill each other, considering I _saw_ them get shot down.

So how _are_ they here? I think I'd rather not know whose bright idea it was to let _these two_ back into another life.

We were sold into the slave trade at sixteen and seventeen (Charles is older) by the terrified citizens of Nevis. They were hoping that if they gave us up, they would leave the rest of Nevis alone. And they actually  _followed_ through on their word. Everyone knows that Adams family members are masters of deception. The only thing that knocks them off their high horses is the cold hard truth (exhibit A: Alexander).

They shipped us off to New York while they made preparations on their flight, in a crate with only a few air holes. We were terrified. We weren't even sure we were going to live through the plane ride considering where we were. 

Unfortunately, we had. So when we finally landed, we did everything in our little power to break out of the crate, maybe run away. All we got were their smug faces staring back into our terrified ones as they lifted us out. John was 42 and Quincy was 20 then, but they are the scrawniest shrimps of men you will ever meet. (From experience, don't call them that to their faces!)

They seemed only prickly around the edges when they led us through the mean streets of New York, simply only reprimanding us every now and again if we accidentally got off course from our destination, our new home. And here we were, thinking,  _"Oh, maybe if we just shape up a bit, we can get them to like us in no time."_

Yeah. Riiiiiiiight. 

Turns out they were much, much worse than that. We found that out when they led us roughly through the house to our room, with whips and a mace hanging on the wall. "We haven't had to use that mace for weeks now," Quincy said, harshly, right into my ear. "Don't make us have to use it again. We don't like losing slaves to stupid reasons like that." That alone was enough to wince.

We were thrown about doing the most impossible of chores and practically breaking our backs (although I have broken my arms at some point and Charles broke some ribs, both at the hands of Quincy since John was hardly ever around) and being beaten thoroughly if we couldn't get it done in ".01 milliseconds". In our line of work, there is no such thing a break. There's hardly such a thing as sleeping, or a NAP! And don't even get me started on their.... other activities. 

Let's just put it to you this way: we're definitely not virgins anymore. You're probably wondering how we lived this far, how we lived to tell the tale.

Well, we got some help.

Enter George Estevez. He's only 14, and yet he did more for us than any adult ever could have. (yes, aka George Eacker from our first lives. He's mellowed out since New Jersey.)

He's the one who gave us the funds. The one who pointed out the quickest train to D.C. The one who risked his neck to let us escape and set us free.

The one who's now hanging off the Steep Hill bridge back by his house, by a noose.

He did it on purpose. He knew the Adamses would have beaten him black, blue, and dead, with all of him in the grave. At least this way he would have a chance to come back someday.

Anyway, here we were, two beaten teens on the tram, hanging onto one another all the way from N.Y.C. all the way to D.C. You'd better believe we got some stares from these people that actually had lives, that didn't have theirs taken away from them at such an age. Most of them looked pitifully at us and some even in disgust. I wanted to pound all of them, but of course Charles wasn't having that so he held me in place. And on in silence we went.

And when we were dropped off at Fredony Forest, just crossing through to get to the shelter in which we were assigned, I couldn't shake the feeling that something bad was about to happen to us before we even got there. I almost dropped the thought... until I dropped face first into the freezing snowy ground and heard Charles thud down beside me. We looked up, then at one another, and then the slightly bloody snow on the ground. How?! There is no feeling of a gunshot anywhere, and we feel fine otherwise... so why are we bleeding exactly?

"Did you miss the way these felt, boys?" came a familiarly grating voice from behind us. And the sensation came back again.

Slowly, we turned around. And there stood Quincy, whips in hand and a hardened look.

And even worse...

The mace was on his back.

***

My eyes open and I'm sprawled out on the ground on top of the snow with the feeling of being drilled into. I can't remember anything else Quincy has said to us, but he is no longer around. Charles and I are on our own.

"John, are you okay?!" Charles pops out of the snow mound beside me. "Quincy got you pretty hard with that mace."

I feel my stomach. I count at least 3 holes in the skin and blood has long stopped oozing. I grimace. "More or less..." I groan. "What about you? You're buried in snow without a proper coat for crying out loud!"

He rubs his head which has an obvious whip mark scar running through it. "More or less," he echoes back to me, and stands up, extending a hand out to me. "Come on, we have to keep moving, before we end up freezing on the ground."

Moving is pointless. We keep stumbling this way and that and collapsing on the ground, mostly from fatigue, but hunger and pain are playing quite a part here. Somehow we break out of the forest and come to a park that isn't recognizable. It reminds me of Hollendaise but I know it's not. I want to give up. I can't move anymore. I slump to the ground under a bench.

"Just one rest, please..." I beg, to no one in particular, closing my eyes and dropping off to sleep, the last things happening before I slip being hard snow coming down and Charles moving me up to the bench to get me off the ground.

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

***

_"Oh, my god, Charles!" I find him leaning against the rocky wall with blood staining from the gun he's just used to shoot himself in the stomach. "What are you doing?!"_

_He looks up at me. "Haven't you heard about the Reincarnation Scrolls?" He points up, to where we hear the pounding of feet. "Those soldiers are coming to skewer us into oblivion. They do that, and we never get our story out. At least if we are reincarnated elsewhere, we'll be able to tell a new generation. But we must kill ourselves, or be killed by a loved one."_

_Charles starts to wheeze. "Find Sam, for me, will you? I have to tell him something before - before I go."_  
  
_I nod solemnly, and dash from the room, where I run into Sam and Lafayette._

_"Sam! I was just looking for you!" I cry out, then point in the direction from which I came. "Charles wants to tell you something, and I'm pretty sure it's really important! But you have to hurry, he doesn't have much time left!"_

_He gasps, and then runs inside to where he is. Laf pulls me into another room with stones all over the ground._

_"Mon ami, what is going on? Everyone is making talk of killing themselves. How are we supposed to find the others if we are dead?" he asks, hands trembling. I take both of them in mine._

_"This is the only way we will be able to find everyone else. Charles told me." I pause for a moment. "He's already shot himself."_

_"What?!" Laf exclaims, flailing his arms about until he hits a door in the room. He briskly opens it and crashes into the rock at thigh level with him, falling to the ground. "Ow..."  
_

_I peer over him. "Oh my god... Theo and James are already ahead of us." I point to the rock bed, where the two of them seem to have suffocated and pressed themselves under stones as they did in the Salem Witch Trials. "They're on their way to a better life now."_

_"Mon dieu... reincarnation..." Laf mutters, kneeling, placing a hand across their stones. Then he turns up and back to me. "You're right. We must go. Do you think we will all find one another in another future?"  
_

_I step up to him and kneel down as well, pressing a kiss to his cheek. "We will get out of here. And we will find one another. If there's anything we've learned here, it's that it's nearly impossible to keep the fourteen of us separated for long."_

_He holds me for a long while on the ground. "We can only hope." Then he looks around. "How do we plan to go?"_

_A weird sound makes us both turn back to the room where Theo and James are. On the ground beside them are vials wildly spinning about. The substances inside them glow neon colors and are marked with skulls and crossbones. We look at each other, scramble to our feet, and each grab one. We almost don't notice Ellie apparate into the room._

_"In sickness..." I say, downing mine in one go._

_"...and in health..." Laf adds, taking his in a more dignified matter._

_"...till death do you part," is the last of Ellie's wispy voice we ever hear before we finally collapse softly to the ground._

*** 

"Are we dead?"

Charles. I can hear him. But I can't see him anywhere. Granted, I can't see anything, and my eyes are wide open.  _Am I blind then?_

"Samuel! They are awake! Come hurry!"

That voice. I would know that accented voice anywhere.

I reach up to my eyes and see that there is a wet blindfold over it. No, wait. A towel. I move it up gently to my forehead and can see my surroundings now. I'm sprawled out on a bed in someone's room. And a very familiar face is staring into mine.

 _"Lafayette?"_ I say, unable to believe what I see. I stretch my hand out as far as it will go, trying to see if my eyes are playing tricks on me.

They don't. Laf reaches his own hand out and takes mine in his. "John." He smiles. "As usual, you were right. We are here, and we are alive."

He helps me sit up in the bed I am on, and then embraces me with all he's got. 

"I thought my eyes played tricks on _me_ when I saw you and Lee curled up under a park bench. What happened? What were you doing there?" he asks, now holding me at arms length.

I shudder. "If it's all right with you, I'd rather not revisit that topic so soon," I say, breathing out in relief when he nods in understanding. I glance around the room. "Where is Charles anyway?"

Laf points to the bed on the far end of the room, where Charles is laying awake facing us, watching. Then he turns to the door and calls, "Samuel, come on! You will really want to see this!"

A sigh is heard from the door. "I don't want to get my hopes up."

"You are not getting your hopes up," says Laf. "Come inside, please? I believe John and Charles really want to see you."

Pause. Then Samuel's head pokes in the doorway, toward our direction first. "Laurens, you're awake, I see."

"Actually it's Laice now," I say, with a shake of my head. "Stupid, right?"

He shrugs. "Better than being Seagull. Or, in Laf's case, getting his first name changed to Gordon."

I giggle. Laf pouts at me. "No making fun of my misfortune..."

"Alright, sorry," I say, with a playful eyeroll. Then I point to the other end of the room. "Sam, I think Charles wants to talk to you."

Sam finally turns and his eyes light up when he sees Charles. "I'm not dreaming, am I? He's really here?"  
  
Charles laughs. "You're not dreaming any more than I am or John is or Laf is."

Sam bursts into the room and immediately squeezes the life out of Charles. Laf and I laugh in amusement.

"Okay, Sam, you may want to dial back before you literally - how you say - squeeze the life out of him, non?" says Laf, crossing over to gently help Sam off of Charles, which in turn causes Sam to pout and Charles to giggle. I somehow manage to get on my feet and make my way to everyone before collapsing on the floor, not too harshly since Laf catches me before I hit it too hard.

"I can't even believe we're here," says Charles. "We actually made it through another life and managed to find one another. Or at least a few of us. That definitely means there is the possibility of finding the others out here."

Laf nods. "Maybe some of them have enrolled in our school. We take ours online, because we do not want people to think us weirder than they already do. Somehow we have managed to teach ourselves what we need to know without help from anyone else." He jerks a thumb at Sam. "This one even manages to join an online church. I did not even know such places existed."

Sam grins, opening the laptop on the bedside table by Charles. "The more we know. Hey, let's see if we got any new students or volunteer opportunities."

"Oui!" Laf says, clapping his hands together in delight. "It is always so much fun to help people out. Are they any donation ones? I love doing those."

Sam shakes his head with a small smile. "Not at the moment, I think we took all of those. But there is a hospital cheer up opportunity at Guns and Ships up and going. Two patients in the Disabled and Detached Limbs ward need a pick me up and fast. They're not responding to any nurses. They need people their age."

I tilt my head as I climb up onto the bed beside Charles. "How old are they?"

"17 and 18," Laf responds, reading over Sam's shoulder. "The boy is older than the girl is. And it looks like they attend our school." He frowns. "At least they did before they were admitted to the hospital for some time."

"So are you guys going to go for it?" asks Charles. "It sounds like a nice opportunity."

Laf nods, perking up. "Of course! You know how I love to cheer people up." Then he turns to us. "The question is, are you going to come with us?"

I raise an eyebrow. "Really? You want us to come with?"

Sam shrugs. "That is, if you want to?"

"Sure," Charles says, with a bigger smile than before. "We need to get out there."

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

I wake up to the bump that Sam's minivan has unexpectedly hit, and jolt right up off of Charles's shoulder.

"Sorry!" Samuel calls out from in front of us, without turning around. "We'll be there shortly though."

Laf is humming a soft tune beside him, and Charles and I are behind them, attempting to sleep. Once again, we are hit with another fatigue spell from wandering around hours before. We were hit with a slight one before leaving the house, and Laf and Sam had to carry us into the car before we fell over.

"We will be getting food when we are there," Laf says, "so you two do not fall over and collapse again. Hope you like hospital food."

Charles says, "At this point, we'll eat nearly anything nonpoisonous. We're not picky," without lifting his head off the door of the car.

At this, I peer at him curiously and Laf turns back with a forlorn look. "Something bothering you, Charles?"

He shakes his head. "Now's not the time to talk about it."

"When will that time happen?" Sam asks, with a little edge to his tone. Now I'm looking at _him_ curiously, and Laf's not that far behind.

Charles shakes a bit. "It - it will happen," he chokes out. "Just not right here and now."

Sam sighs. "Okay, okay... sorry about that."

A few minutes later and the two of them are leading the two of us through the dismal hospital halls and we're trying not to get sick over the wet paint smell we keep passing. As promised, we make a bee line for the cafeteria and finally refill our stomachs with something. I get some fries and a shake and Charles snacks on some fish sticks. I think we've scared Laf and Sam by the way we were eating as if we hadn't touched food in months. Ohhhh, we're going to get in so much trouble when they hear about that part.

The Disabled and Detached ward of the very few hospitals we've been stuck into always makes me feel super depressed. Especially since the two of us have had some close calls with this section before. Being here usually puts any patient in a dismal mood, and only loved ones had been able to cheer them up. Sometimes, really good friends would do it. But the ones who never had any never emotionally recovered when they got out. People either had pity or disgust for them. We know how they feel.

As we cross through the hall we keep asking around for Miss Balon-Presto and Mister Martin, and we keep wondering why they only gave us their last name on file and not their firsts so we don't wander around sounding so stupid. Charles snickers a few times until I kindly but firmly put him in his place by reminding him that his last name is Lennon and he shouldn't be making fun of anyone, which is enough to make him shut up.

Two hours later and we're finally in front of the door after being sent on a crazy wild goose chase. Laf's panting hard having run most of it and not telling us why. I'm leaning all over Sam having tripped over my feet too many times. Only Charles is still calm, upright, and otherwise unoccupied, so he's the one to knock on the door and wait for a response.

"Who is it?" asks a voice. It sounds male, very snappish, and a bit familiar.

Charles thinks for a moment. "Don't worry, it's not a nurse. Or a doctor. Or any staff for that matter."

A rustling sound is heard, then another voice, this one female, less agitated, and just as vaguely familiar: "Well, we'll judge that for ourselves. Come on in, I suppose."

Sam fumbles with the door and pushes through into the room with the rest of us behind him. In the room, the shades are half open, the TV is viewing static, and the bathroom door is covered in dent marks and half cracked open. But that isn't even the shocking part. It's what's in the two twin hospital beds that's shocking. Or better yet,  _who's_ in it. 

In the one closest to the window is a boy sitting up in bed with the bed nearly as far up as it will allow. His arms are in the lap on his blankets - although in his case it's about one arm and half of the other. There is a clean cut stump where the other half of his right arm used to be, and beside it is his hospital remote. It seems he has long given up trying to put the bed back down slightly to a more comfortable position. He wears a pained expression and his head is sunk back as far as his short yet unruly curly hair will allow it.

In the other, closest to the door and therefore to us, is a girl who at least has both of her arms, both over her head as she lies down at absolutely flat level. Beside her bed is a wheelchair, presumably hers. One of her legs is stuck out at an odd angle between the sheets, covered in bruises all over, which might have been her trying to claw her way back into bed, which explains the rustling. Her coppery hair is tied in two pigtails over her shoulders. Her expression, while albeit more cheerful, is just as melancholy as her friend's.

Both of them turn to us as the door shuts quietly but not silently. Their eyes are analytical, sweeping us up and down with distrust written all over their looks. It's weird how that's all I see in them. Were you to look into mine (and probably Charles, Laf, and Sam) you would see flashes of recognition slowly falling into place.

"James? Theo?" I can't help blurting out. Realized what I've said, I grab my ponytail and bite down on my curly hair to keep myself to saying anything else stupid.

Their eyes widen at this. Then James slowly stands up and walks over to me. I have to do everything in my power to not stare at his stumpy arm swing as he walks up. He tilts his head, then places a hand on my shoulder. I'm about to ask what on earth he's doing when he says, suddenly, "John?"

I nod weakly, realizing that memories come back by touch, while on the verge of trying not to cry out happy tears. "That's my name, don't wear it out," I say, and then I fail miserably and yank James in for a hug. He reciprocates as best he can, and then Laf comes up and joins us.

"Guys?" We turn in our hug and Theo's looking at us with tears in her own eyes. "Did we do it? Did we really escape?"

Sam jumps up and down. "You bet we did!" he yells, throwing his arms up in the air before he and Charles go and hug Theo from her spot on the bed. "I can't believe this opportunity led us to you two!"

"Hopefully you guys will be the reason we finally get to  _leave_ the hospital," says James, attempting to cross his arms. "You know they've kept us here for at least 3 months?"

Theo rolls her eyes. "It's probably because they finally deemed us 'stable' enough to be anywhere. We freaked out so much they were convinced we weren't human."

"That explains the door," I say, pointing at it. James and Theo both nod. 

"Yeah, we were kinda upset to have been brought into the life like this, but we eventually figured it was better than never coming back at all, right?" James says. "Besides, we had each other, so we weren't completely lonely."

"Kinda of how me and Sam had one another when we were teased and ridiculed upon coming into this life by everyone else," says Laf. "Or Charles and John when I found them."

Theo raises an eyebrow, and then turns to us. "What do you mean when you 'found' them?"

Laf immediately smacks his hand over his mouth. He looks helplessly sorry at Charles and me. I think he is expecting us to yell at him, but we don't. He slowly lowers his hand, raising an eyebrow of his own. "You are not mad?" he asks incredulously.

Charles shakes his head. "No. Besides, now is a good time as any to tell you guys, since we're all here."

"Tell us what?" Theo asks, motioning to Sam to help her move to her wheelchair.

"How we got here. To America, I mean." I suck in a breath. Charles stands besides me, Theo's in her chair with James behind her, and Laf and Sam sit in various chairs around the room. After trying to psyche myself up, I start. "Okay, so exactly one year ago, we were on Nevis, doing our very best to keep ourselves alive, get around."

"Wait, you were on Nevis?!" James exclaims. "As in Alex's old home?"

I nod. "Yeah. It was okay, I guess, better than the last life anyway. We wondered if any of our stories ever got told."

"Did they?" everyone else asks.

Charles shrugs sadly. "We don't know, or remember," he admits. "Every time he hit us hard there was always the chance he'd aim too high and hit our heads. Sometimes we can't remember certain things when it happens, and it either took a long time to come back or it never came back at all."

Theo makes a noise of surprise. "Who hit you?!"

We sigh. "It was the Adamses. Mostly the younger one."

Laf scrunches up his face. "Ugh, they are annoying. Why do they keep coming? And were they not shot down in a hit-and-run back in Jersey?"

"Yes! They were!" I cry out, exasperated. "Unless they shot _each other_ then they _should not_ have come back this time. I'm starting to get suspicious of those people that were shooting it up."

"They don't even teach that history in our school," Theo says with a scowl. "It's stupid how they don't. All the physical schools in this area don't even have any books on it. They're all on the opposite side of D.C."

"And we don't even know why," James adds. "I think they're discriminating against some of the kids around here. Mostly the ones with disabilities, like us, or the mentally scarred kind."

"Like us," I say weakly, gesturing to me and Charles.

Sam nods sadly. "So they only have them on the other side of D.C. How on earth are we supposed to find out the history now? They don't let us order the book around here for _who knows why_."

"There is only one way." All of us turn toward Laf as he speaks. "We must go to the other side of D.C. Which, if memory serves me right, is where we lived in the life we have just escaped."

I suddenly realize something. "Oh my god! What if the other eight are there?! They could reading up this stuff on their own!"

Everyone else widens their eyes at me. Then Sam reaches for his laptop sprawled on Theo's bed and frantically types something. Theo looks over by turning around in her chair as best she could.

"Are you looking for what I think you are?" she asks Sam.

"Depends," he says shortly without glancing up. The rest of us are utterly confused. "Aha!" he cries out a moment later, turning the laptop to us. "No way would a certain friend of ours be able to resist a good critical review."

All six of us stare long and hard at the screen. He's opened up to a blog page, currently with one post. And as soon as I read the name and post I gasp.

 

_How can you people be so ungrateful?! You would never stand a chance under King George's rule! But your insipid history books don't tell all those stories, now do they? And most of the ones it does tell are ladled with bias! HAVE YOU NO SHAME?!! If I could rewrite all of them, I would! But for now, I will have to make do with my own. Updated pages to come..._

_Yrs,_

_A. Ham_

_p.s. And you wonder why I act so weird. I don't quite get your time._

 

"Did he just attempt to blow his cover as a reincarnate?!" Laf says finally, staring at the laptop as if he wants to compact it into trash.

"He's going to get so much attention called to himself," I add, "probably the annoying kind."

James raises his good arm in the air. "So it's settled. We need to catch a train to the other side of D.C. and find him. And if we're lucky, he will have found others of us."

"But how are we going to get out of here?" Theo asks. "They haven't released us yet."

I glance out the window, where I see that night has already fallen outside. Dang, we were here a while. Why haven't they come to tell us that visiting hours are over?

"It's dark out," Sam says, voicing my thoughts, "and they haven't come up here to make us leave, not once. They might not even know you're gone."

Laf lifts Theo out of her wheel chair and places her on his back. Then he nods to me and the wheelchair. "Carry that, just in case we'll need it later. It's easier to get Theo downstairs this way. I remember that they lock up their elevators at night."

"Good call," I say, as Sam shuts his laptop and Charles and James peer out to check the scene. I turn to them. "Well?"

"Coast is clear," James says, stepping into the hall. "Let's go!"

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

It's an hour later when we're all finally on the train (thankfully relatively empty) on the way back to D.C. It's times like this that I'm glad we take an online class so we never really have to worry about missing anything. Hopefully our search does not turn up dead.


	4. Take a Stand, Make Amends, Trapped Inside For Hours On End

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Triple A Squad gets trapped in their dorm room by the students and a top notch security system after Alex's blog post and must sneak through the vents to get food and such all while taking their classes online. Their next-dorm mates get trapped with them too and they realize one of them isn't as annoying as the other.
> 
> Meanwhile. the KC Five must find another way to search the grounds before other students get suspicious of them by staying under the radar themselves. 
> 
> On an unrelated note, the Other Six explore around their old home place for old times sake.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Triple A Squad are from Chapter 1  
> The KC Five are from Chapter 2  
> The Other Six are from Chapter 3
> 
> Also, it's not time for them to meet up yet! But they will in the next chapter.

"BACK, YOU VULTURES!" Aaron screams over the muffled commotion outside our door. He starts banging on the door in an attempt to stop them from doing the same.

I raise an eyebrow to him. "Isn't that kind of counterintuitive?"

Angelica turns to me. "He wouldn't look so ridiculous if not for you. You had to make that blog post, didn't you?"

I huff. "Fine. Maybe that wasn't my best idea. But did you expect anyone to react the way they are right now?!"

Thanks to me and my big fat mind, we're stuck on lockdown inside our own dorm. And to make matters worse, classes are out because of Dean Adams' stupid emotional problems. Mainly they involve his son, Quincy, consistently stressing him out about something or other. We've heard the phone calls.

Anyway, none of the students have left our door for an hour. They'd been screaming rash insults, mostly at me, some at Aaron and Angie which I did not appreciate because they've not done anything! It amazes me that no one's really tried to break down the door at this point considering the buzz this has created.

Aaron rolls his eyes. "Definitely didn't expect this, considering how ignorant people are in history class. Mr. Washburn is not pleased at all."

"Can you blame him?" I ask, "and remember that we're allowed to call him George, at least."

"Him and Martha have to put up with so much bull," Angelica says. She jerks a thumb at the door. "And now, we do too. How are we supposed to get any food? The mini fridge is low and they're blocking our way out!"

I glance up at the ceiling at the vent, then over to the window. Angelica follows my gaze from the bed.

"Maybe we can go out the window?" she suggests.

I shake my head. "Nope. We have to take the vents. They're safer, and we can access rooms faster that way."

"How?!" Angelica says. "We're not that high up, and the vents might collapse! Aaron," she turns to him who is now standing right by the window, looking out, leaning against the nightstand, "tell him he's being ridiculous!"

He turns to face us. "I can't do that."

"Why not?!" she demands. I walk over and look out.

"Uh... that's why," I say, pointing out the window. Angelica marches over to see what Aaron and I are talking about and gasps.

Standing outside are rows of students carrying signs, torches, and pitchforks, marching back and forth in eerie silence. Why aren't they saying anything?! In any event, there's no way we are going down there.

Angelica looks at me with a scowl. "Fine. We're doing it your way."

I shrug. I really don't want to make her angrier than she seems. I'm not Ben or Jon, so agitating her would be stupid.

Speak of the devils.

There's a rattling coming from the vents and we all glance nervously at them. The booming gets louder and we all duck behind something: me to Angie's desk, Aaron under the covers, and Angie at the bathroom. Then the vent shaft flies off its nails and we all scream as two figures fall smack onto the bed. I peer out from under the desk and recognize them immediately.

"What are you two idiots doing here?!" I snap at them. It's Jonathan and Benjamin, and when Aaron and Angelica also realize this they're glaring along with me. "Why were you in the vents?!"

Ben gets up off the bed and crosses his arms. "Your voices do carry through our vents you know, they're connected the closest. And we can't get out our doors because a certain nerd - " he glares pointedly at me - "has indirectly trapped us in our room. All those fools think we're reincarnates now and they're not getting away any time soon!"

"And unlike you," Jon adds, a little gentler, "our door isn't strong enough to keep them out. They broke in by the time we were halfway through. Do you mind if we just hide out with you guys for the time being?"

All three of us look at one another in shock. Ben jumps up and down in protest. "No! Why here?!"

"Because," Jon snaps, "do you really think we have any other choice? And they're just as trapped as we are! It's a miracle they haven't already surrendered us to the people considering what we did to Alexander here."

I raise an eyebrow. Aaron says, "Jon, we wouldn't mind you staying. But Ben, on the other hand..."

Jon rolls over until he is on the other side of the bed before making his way to the floor. Meanwhile, Ben is still glaring at all of us. It's only a matter of time before he backs down.

~~~~~~

"Hey!" I cry out in indignation as Hercules pulls me back behind a corner. "What the heck was that for, Herc?"

The five of us are outside Princeton at the moment, seeing where our hunch would take us. As mentioned before, Aaron and Angelica are here, and if we can just brush past them we'll know it for sure, along with if Alexander is really here with them. I'm so excited that I nearly rush in were it not for a certain someone pulling me back.

He points to a far window across the way and I see people marching around in front of it carrying pitchforks and torches.

"People shouting in the Square," I say simply. "So what?"

Thomas raises an eyebrow. "This isn't just any 'so what', Eliza. Look at what their signs say."

I squint. "How do you expect me to see that?"

"They're reincarnation-unfriendly," Peggy says. "And you guys didn't see how much worse it got."

"What do you mean 'worse'?" asks Maria. Peggy raises the phone and points at the 'Read More' that we have clearly all missed. She pushes it and the whole page drops 50 feet.

My eyebrows fly off their head. "Whoa! What the heck is the rest of that?"

"Oh, just some past stories and freaking super descriptions of us. You know, the usual crazy Alexander stuff."

Maria puts her hands on her hips. "Oh great, now we're going to be on high alert. How do we check out the campus without getting torn apart?!"

"Easy," says Thomas. "We go find the drama room and put some masks over our faces so no one else can see them. And if all else fails, we'll hide in any closets we run into."

"Sounds like a plan," says Hercules. "But how do we find the drama room?"

"Cover your face and follow those kids," I say, pointing to a group of kids hurrying in with masks in their hands or on their faces. All of us use our hands and swiftly follow after them.

~~~~~~

"It is still the same as I remember," Laf says, looking the old cherry tree up and down. He reaches one hand out to touch it, the other still holding Theo in place behind him.

I nod. "Yeah... I can't believe they didn't even chop it down."

"Clearly they know a good tree when they see one," says James, hanging from one of the sturdier branches by his arm.

The six of us are now in Hollendaise Park, one of the places we had spent most of our time one lifetime ago, besides the Washingtons' and Main Square Bakery. Having lived life on the other side of D.C., we see how dismal it is compared to this. D.C.'s so huge, apparently the two sides are conflicting on temperatures. It was nearly always cold over there and snow wasn't so uncommon. Here, however, it's typically as sunny as could be, and I wish we have been reincarnated in this one instead.

"What's that?" Sam asks suddenly. He points to a quite large book laying discarded on the ground, open face down.

Charles shrugs before walking over and picking it up. He studies it for a few moments. Then his eyes widen and he's beckoning us all over real fast.

"Well?" Theo says.

He holds up the book for all of us to see. A collective gasp rises from us all.

"Is that what we think it is?" Laf asks, in a hushed whisper. Theo raises both brows on her head.

"If it's a history book," she says, "then I'll bet."

My eyes light up. "It's not just any historical book. It's a very specific edition, long banned to us from the other side of D.C."

James drops down from the tree and rushes over to the rest of us. "What are we waiting for?? Let's read it!"

~~~~~~

"All hail Sir Jonathan!" I say to him, as he pops his head through the vent in triumph.

As expected, the food has run out in our mini fridge and we have to go out and get some. Let's just say that most of our attempts failed. Aaron's sort of claustrophobic; he won't even try going through unless we have class. Angelica's hair got caught on something in there, and when she turned to give up she tore a chunk of hair off, screaming so loud that even all the protesters stopped making noise for a few moments. Ben refused to go in there at all, just because he's stupid and worries about dust. And when I attempted it, I slipped and fell down a wrong path that went unnoticed and damaged my right leg. Now I've been restricted to the bed because my squad insists I don't even try to stand.

"Glad to be of service," he says, landing on the bed away from me and holding items in his hands. He tosses something to each person. "Hope I got the right stuff. Almost got frazzled down there for a sec."

"Honestly, Jonathan, we're not going to be that picky," says Angelica, taking a bite of the plum she is holding. "We're lucky to get any food at all."

Aaron, who is holding a PB&J sandwich, nods. "She's right." He takes a bite. "We might be starving to the next week if not for you."

"I could have done that too, you know," Ben sneers from the corner, leaving his panini beside him on the ground. "You're acting like it's so hard to shimmy into a vent."

"Cause it is," I snap. "Angie lost some hair, Aaron's going to feel squeezed, you are too chicken about a minuscule amount of dust, and I'm fairly sure I broke something. Jon's our only hope."

Ben rolls his eyes. "Whatever." He gets up and stares out the window. "These idiots are still out here."

"Thanks, Captain Obvious," Angelica says sarcastically. Jon holds back a giggle but Aaron and I sure don't. Ben turns to glare at us only to lean too far out of the window. He slips and hits the ground, his arm still sticking out above him. We all laugh harder. At least we’re entertained.

~~~~~~ 

***

_"What are you doing??"_

_I call out to Henry Staunton. His cronies (former citzens of a collapsed Tesfore) are dragging James, Theodosia, Samuel, Charles, John and Lafayette away. I'm held hostage between him and his mother. The others are standing off to another side, in a cage. My sisters appear utterly numb and despondent, Aaron is rattling on the cage bars like a madman while Hercules tries to calm him down, Thomas and Maria look terrified, and Alexander is randomly shouting every few moments from pain._

_He turns to face me. "You brought this on yourselves, dearest; hasn't anyone told you to never cross me!"_

_"You won't get away with this!" I hiss vehemently. He grabs my chin and strokes it lightly._

_"I'm afraid I already have, love."_

***

"Focus, Eliza!" Thomas's voice calls out to me from somewhere. I can't see anything. "Open your eyes, are you okay?!"

Realizing that my eyes are, indeed, closed, I open them and see Herc, Maria, Thomas, and James all standing over me. They look worried. That means I'm laying flat on the ground.

"What happened?" I ask, squinting up at them. 

Peggy raises an eyebrow to me. "You tell us," she says. "You collapsed right in the middle of the floor. Those drama kids thought you were such a good actress."

"I must have flashbacked again," I say, sitting up off the ground, rubbing my head and looking around. At least we've made it to the drama room.

Thomas gasps. "You do that too?" When I nod, he says, "here I thought I was going crazy for having those every once in a while because none of the others do. What did you see?"

"Henry," I say bitterly. Every one knew of his crazy crush on me and the lengths he was willing to go for some alone time with me. And some of the stupid things he would do, if I asked.

Maria wanders off and comes back with some simple colored masks in hand, passing one off to each of us. "We'd better hurry," she says, "because I saw the drama teacher, and I have a bad feeling it's who I think it is."

"Who do you think it is?" asks Herc.

Maria sucks in a breath. "King George."

"What?!" all the rest of us cry out in unison.

She nods. "Yeah, you have to see him for yourselves. I'm pretty sure it's him. You know he has a flair for the dramatic."

Peggy crosses her arms. "Must we deal with him everywhere we go? This is so not fair!"

"Apparently. Someone just shoot him already," Maria says with a hiss. "Getting America and James wouldn't hurt either."

Herc shrugs, and lowers the golden mask he is given over his face, placing his beanie back on his head. "In any event, we're not looking for him. We're looking for people that matter. And I'm guessing they are the ones that got trapped in the room those students are surrounding."

I lower my own mask, a pale robin's egg blue, to my own face, and then make a move to stand back up. "What are we waiting for then?" I ask. "Let's see if there's any secret methods of moving around here..." }~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

"This book says that it is 'Property of Princeton'," says Laf, looking on the inside of the cover after we have finished skimming through it. "Is it not true that Aaron went to this school so long ago?"

I nod. "Mm hmm. 'Well, if it ain't the prodigy of Princeton College!' You think that he may have ended up there?"

"It might not be just him," James points out. "We have a tendency to never end up reincarnated too far from any of us for long. At least one of the others could be at the school with him."

"How are we going to find them, though?" asks Sam, tilting his head. "That place is super huge, you know? And people look so similar to others these days. We might end up being wrong like this other reincarnate dude says on this blog I've been reading about."

Charles turns to him. "What blog?"

Sam taps on his phone and then holds it up to show us. Theo reads the title of the blog out loud.

"'The Truth in the Word Post'? What kind of name is that?" she asks, squinting at it.

My eyes light up. "The kind of verbose title that only one Alexander Hamilton would come up with," I say, taking the phone from Sam to read the few posts that had been put there. Then I gasp. "Alexander isn't the only one who has posted something on this blog."

"What??" everyone else gasps. I show them the "Members of the Blog" list, which has three distinct usernames under it (A/N: the same as their texting names):

_NonStopHam_

_TailorInParentis_

_LongForgotten_

"That means Hercules and Peggy are definitely close," Laf concludes. "We must get some directions to Princeton and fast."

I shake my head. "Ah, we won't need them. If my hunch is correct, it should be exactly in the same spot it was years ago, and that kind of remembrance needs no directions. Come on!"

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You didn't think I'd leave King George and the Washingtons out, did you?
> 
> Also, Tench, Marshall, and Wilkinson will be showing up later.


	5. Rocktober and Roll

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Revelationaries finally meet up - at the annual Rocktober Carnival that Princeton hosts every year - in some weird ways. They manage to catch up and find more of the reincarnations from their first lives to see how they are doing now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Only a few hours after Ch. 4
> 
> Also, in addition to Tench, Wilkinson, and Marshall, Martha Manning will be showing up in this chapter.

"Wow," I say, staring out the window, finally getting to stand because my leg is much better. "They really go all out for this, don't they?"

Jon appears over my shoulder. "Looks like it."

It took  _hours_ before Dean Adams came back from his stupid little spat with Quincy to dissipate all the people outside. Most of them got detention and the rest left the area for the day, so it's eerily silent. Also, there are currently no plans apparent to fix Ben and Jon's room door, or apparently all the stuff that has been destroyed in there, so for now they are still in our room. It's a good thing Ben has mellowed out a bit or we wouldn't be able to stand it.

Outside there is a mess of booths and a stage for certain musical acts. Various food and game system trucks litter the lot. Today is the annual Rocktober Festival, or Rocktoberfest, as some call it. Every year, they call performers to put on a show while everyone hangs out and tries the food. That's what some of the other kids have gossiped about before. And apparently Princeton always overdoes theirs. But it's what makes it so fun.

"King's College did this too, you know," Ben says, a bit grumpily. Then he changes his tone a bit. "You know, the Rocktober thing. But, you know, never this enthusiastically."

"Are we going to go?" asks Aaron, who is standing by the front door. "I know most everyone isn't here right now, but what if they come back? I'm not sure if I want to face an interrogation."

"I think we'll be fine," Angelica says with a dismissive wave of her hand. "No one's really coming around today, from what it looks like."

Jon rocked on his feet. "So we're going?"

"Yep!" I say, racing out the door. "Let's go!"

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

"What are you doing here?" calls a snotty voice from behind us. "You aren't supposed to be here. Last time I checked, you weren't students."

"Shouldn't you be rotting in hell somewhere?" I snip back without turning. "Last time  _I_ checked, you were executed. Our history books say so."

Alas, we aren't quick enough to get outside, and King George manages to find us just as soon as we're halfway to the door that leads out back, where the annual Rocktober festival was probably soon going to be underway. Princeton apparently outdoes us every year. It's just a fact.

“You can’t believe everything you read,” King George points out. “But I guess that’s a simple-minded brain talking.”

“You can’t believe everything you hear, either,” I counter, “so who’s the smart idiot that told you to stay conceited all the time?”

Everyone looks shocked that I've spoken so venemously. Honestly, I've scared me too. But I finally turn back to face our former ruler with a disgusted look on my face.

"Why do you even care what we're doing anymore?" Thomas asks in confusion. "You're not our ruler."

"I'm doing my job," he sneers. "You're not enrolled in this school, so you are technically trespassing on our campus. Why shouldn't I call Dean Adams and have you all thrown out of here?"

Maria gapes. "Come on, man, have a heart! Wouldn't you want to find old friends of yours at any cost?"

"If he had any," I mutter quietly. Herc jabs me with his elbow.

King George narrows his eyes, and then turns his back. "I suppose I'll pretend I didn't see you. Don't get in my way again." And with that, he walks away. All five of us stare after him.

"Maybe they'll be at the Rocktober Festival today," says Herc, pointing toward the door in which were were previously heading. "Considering most of their tormentors aren't here they might actually enjoy themselves."

Peggy nods. "True. Plus it sounds like fun! I hear this place outdoes ours every year."

"Yep, and I'd rather be here than there anyway, no one knows how to have fun," says Thomas. "What are we waiting for? Let's get out there and go looking."

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

"I wish that James Reynolds did not have to touch me in order to find this, but this looks like fun, non?" Laf asks us, holding a flyer in front of our faces.

It's been some hours and we're all still hanging out at Hollendaise after going through our classes via Sam's laptop and reading the history book. We re-remember some interesting things through our legacies, including the Reynolds Pamphlet (which all of us shudder at) and the Cabinet Battles (which all of us laugh at). I think our favorite would be Yorktown (it's one of our favorite songs after all). Anyway, after all that, some dude comes stomping along the path and he's pissed about something. Laf, ever the peacemaker, decides to go talk to him. Of course, the dude yells at Laf for a solid 15 minutes and not once does our resident Frenchman flinch. And the dude even appreciates it. He hands him a piece of paper, pats Laf on the back and goes on his way. Laf makes his way back to us, but not before cringing due to the contact (and telling us why).

"What is it?" asks James, taking the flyer in his hand. "Some festival, from the looks of it."

Laf looks offended and whacks James upside the head with the history book. "This is not just 'some festival', how dare you offend Rocktoberfest this way!" he says in a mock offended tone.

"Why do you know so much about it?" asks Theo, who's back in her wheelchair by now. "We never had fun festivals like this back home."

"How else does anyone learn about anything? You read it online!" says Laf. "Rocktoberfest is legendary around this side of D.C., especially at Princeton! We must go! It will also give us an excuse to see if any of our friends are here, oui?"

Sam shrugs. "I guess? But we have to get to Princeton first, don't we?"

Charles says, "GPS now exists for a reason, man - so we aren't trying to read confusing maps and end up miles from where we started. Besides, if memory serves, it's not too far from here."

"Well, let's be on our way then!" I declare, leading the way out of the park.

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

“Who are those kids?” I ask, pointing to a group that exits out the back door. 

“Beats me, Alexander, but don’t they look familiar?” Aaron replies, with some cotton candy in hand.

Angelica raises her head from the picnic table we’re all sitting at. “I think? It’s kinda hard to tell when all of them are wearing masks over their faces.”

Ben surveys them with mild disinterest. “They look an awful lot like your so-called friends and acquaintances.”

”Like you would know what a lot of friends look like,” Jon mutters with an eye roll. 

“Why don’t we go say hi? If they don’t go to our school, they might not have taken the blog post as seriously as our actual classmates have,” says Angelica, moving to stand. Aaron and I follow after, while Ben and Jon stay behind.

As soon we approach them, I call out, “Excuse me?” and all five of them turn toward us. The way they stand seems familiar to me. It's all I can go off of since their faces are obscured by their masks.

“Hello,” says one of them, in a magenta mask, casually.

“Hi!” I say, with a wave. “My name’s Alexander Hilton, and these are my friends Aaron Bourne and Angelica Simon-Schuster.” I point at both of them.

Aaron says, “Charmed,” and Angelica exclaims, “Nice to meet you!” The latter walks up to the girls in the green and pale blue masks and offers up a hand to shake. They both reach up to shake it... and feel a jolt.

“Whoa!” all three of them cry out at once, stepping back. The girl in the red mask raises her own, revealing her thought-ladled face. It looks familiar for some reason.

“Hey!” The boy in the golden mask suddenly stumbles into me, and I fall a slight bit forward hitting the one in magenta, who turns to me and flips up his mask in shock.

Meanwhile, the one in red nearly trips over Aaron’s foot, only to have him catch her last minute. Their eyes meet, and they’re bulging with even more shock.

All of us are staring at one another, unable to believe it. The ones with their masks still over their faces finally remove them, and are the first to speak.

“Angelica?” say Eliza and Peggy.

“Alex?” says Herc.

Thomas and Maria, who have already flipped theirs, call out the last name. “Aaron?”

We’re all nodding, and then we’re suddenly swept up in a bigger whirlwind of hugs than our last one, shocked to see the five of them once more.

“Called it!” Peggy cries out, when we all separate. All the rest of us laugh at this. 

"What last names did you get?" asks Aaron, pointing at Thomas, Maria, and Hercules when he says it.

Thomas rolls his eyes. "These days I'm Thomas Johnson. Not only is that one of the more basic last names, it's a former president's name as well."

"I'd take that over being Hercules Maple," says Herc. "Seriously. I got named after a a type of  _leaf_."

Maria shrugs. "Mine doesn't even really have a meaning. I'm just Maria Langford."

"What are the odds that they still let us be sisters in this life?" asks Angelica, to her sisters, with a chuckle. Everyone else laughs along. 

I ask, "You guys going to King's College?"

"Actually, yeah, we are," says Thomas. "And I see you two - " he points to Aaron and Angie when he says this " - are getting along better at Princeton."

"Sure are," says Aaron. "Why don't you guys come sit with us?"

The three of us lead them to the table when Ben and Jon are still sitting.

"Oh!" I say suddenly, and then point at them. "Guys, this is Ben Timmons and Jon Bellhop - aka Ben Tallmadge and Jon Bellamy from our oldest lives."

"No way!" says Herc. "Good to see you guys again."

"Likewise, Mulligan," says Ben.

All ten of us are now at the table, with me, Herc, Jon, Angie, and Eliza on one side - and Ben, Aaron, Peggy, Thomas, and Maria on the other one.

"Where do you think the rest of our squads are?" asks Herc, twirling his beanie on his hand. "Think they live around here?"

Eliza clasps her hands together. "I hope so. We wouldn't want almost a third of our group to be lost to us."

Aaron suddenly looks over us in horror. "Uh, guys, I think a crowd is coming back."

"Is it anyone from our school??" asks Angie. "If it is, we need to get the heck out of Dodge before they get us again!"

Herc crosses his arms. "They'll have to go through us before we let that happen."

Most of the kids pass by our table except a select few who actually bump into us, and seem awfully intent on doing so. Hercules and Thomas are about to give this group of six a piece of their minds until they get a good look at them. 

All six of them are staring back at us, with recognition fluttering into their features. I cover my mouth so they can't see my reaction to one of them in a wheelchair and another with only half a right arm.

"See? I tell you, we find them, no?" says Lafayette, when he gestures to us to the rest of the group. 

"Wow, you two both have a magic mouth," Ben says in astonishment, to Eliza and Herc. "You know we were just talking about you before you guys showed up?" He turns to the remaining six of our group when he says this.

John looks him up and down, with a small smile. "Tallmadge. Did not expect to see you here, to be honest."

"No offense taken," he says, with his hands raised.

"Don't worry about us," Theo and James say at the same time. "We'll explain this later."

Charles and Sam turn towards the dunk tank booth. "Hey, don't those people look familiar?"

All sixteen of us turn towards the booth. Three boys and a girl are idling around it, looking around sort of lost. We can only catch glimpses of their faces, but they seem familiar.

John's eyes widen first. "I know that girl," he says. "That's Martha Manning, an old childhood friend of mine and Frances'. Huh, I guess Frances didn't come around this year."

"But I recognize the men who _are_ here," I say. "Tench, Wilkinson, and Marshall are all over there with her."

Laf's eyes widen. "You cannot be serious."

"Yes I can," I assure him. "That's seriously them."

"Dang," says Herc, "this life is literally a whole treasure trove of finding past people. And this event in particular."

Right then, the four in question turn toward us, squinting and tilting their heads. Laf, Eliza, and Sam immediately look down. Thomas, Ben, Herc, and John cross their arms. Then they make their way over to us.

"John!" Martha cries out when they reach us. "How the heck are ya?"

John chuckles. "Doing mighty fine, thanks."

Wilkinson does a trademark creepy face of his and Maria says, "can you NOT do that??" while shuddering. He grins evilly at her.

Meanwhile Tench and Marshall strike up conversation with Laf, Aaron and Herc. It's funny, like Herc said, how many people we seem to find around here. Something tells me we'll find many more.

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

Hours later, nearing dark, after exchanging numbers with Tench, Martha, Marshall, and Wilkinson before seeing them off, the rest of us look at one another.

"What now?" asks Aaron. "I mean, Alex, Angie, Ben, Jon, and I don't have to leave because this is where we're staying. But what about the rest of you?"

Herc shrugs. "Thomas, Maria, Eliza, Peggy, and I go back to King's. We don't have any transfer options at this point. Not until the semester ends. Even so, apparently James is holding a secret over Maria's head and so we need to help her get even before we leave."

Sam sighs. "Well, Theo, Charles, James, Laf, John, and I all came from the complete opposite side of D.C. Even though our school is online, we can't stay here very long. At least, not now. We'd have to wait a month or two before our lease is due to renew before we can even consider moving."

I say, "Okay. So in order to reunite all the Revelationaries on the correct side of town, into the good school, we need to take our time and then take it one step at a time." I turn to John and Laf. "Let us know when your lease ends and then we'll all come out there and help you move back home." Then I turn to Eliza and Maria. "And when we're all here, we're busting you guys out of that school. And don't worry, Ria, James is going down." I step back so that I'm facing everyone. "Agreed?"

Everyone else nods.

I stick my hand out in front and everyone else piles a hand on top. Then we all say, at the same time: "Ready, BREAK!"

Reunion is under way!


	6. Night Watchers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aaron and Alexander get called out by the Dean to babysit some neighborhood kids. They may or may not end up spending quality time hiding out in fear in the foster home closet before the ordeal is over.
> 
> Meanwhile, Angelica is stuck in her room while Ben and Jon are stuck back in theirs. They use the vents to chat and the windows to get around and avoid the watchful eyes of security.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Set some time after the previous chapter. This will be told in Alex and Angelica's POVs.
> 
> (The events of "Love is Klutzy" have happened in this time period, even though it is meant to be a standalone. Yes, I love to be confusing)
> 
> We're introducing Phillip, Georges, and little Theo into this chapter as the neighborhood kids. The Washingtons have completely adopted Phillip (if you read my story "One Feral Tomcat" that's where it's referenced) and Georges and Theo are still in the system.
> 
> Edit: Thank you for 500 hits!! :)

"You wanted to see us, sir?" Aaron asks nervously, fidgeting in his seat a bit. Sitting beside him, I reach over and grab one of his hands from under the desk in an attempt to soothe his nerves.

The day started out normal enough: me, Jon, Angie, Ben, and Aaron goofing around as usual, along with the added practice of visiting our King's College friends and texting with our cross-D.C. ones. We were right in the middle of a large group game (using FaceTime with our other friends) when Quincy appeared at our door carrying news. One, Ben and Jon's room was fixed, so they could move back in, which they begrudgingly did, having been used to our room for a month or so now. Two, they'd posted security outside our rooms so A) riots like last month's didn't happen and B) so we didn't do anything stupid at night like King's College kids. The second thing was obviously targeting our friends so we rolled our eyes. And three, Aaron and I had to go see Dean Adams immediately for some thing. Quincy wouldn't tell us why though. Aaron thinks it's to make us squirm, but honestly I don't think Quincy even knows what's up.

John looks at us both, adjusting his glasses every now and again. "Relax. You two aren't in trouble today." He says this because any little thing we do that he disapproves of automatically lands us in some scale of trouble. "I have a favor to ask of you."

Aaron and I look at one another. Out of all the people he can pick in this whole school, it's us, his labeled troublemakers. Wow. He must be desperate.

"Why us?" I ask. "You could ask anyone else that isn't a troublemaker..."

He shrugs. "Consider it a form of community service." He leans over his desk slightly to stare us both down. "The Washingtons - or the Washburns, as they're known here - are going out to a very important meeting across town, and need someone to babysit their three kids. Well, technically, one of them is their kid; the other two are still in the system and they're trying to work that out. Anyway, they recommended you two."

"Well, that checks out," Aaron says, albeit a bit sarcastically. He stands up, pulling me along with him since I'm still holding his hand. "Just tell us where they live and we'll be on our way."

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

_**B-Dog: jon where r u man? how long do it take to just get sum grab-n-go...** _

_**J-Bomb: Pretty damn long if no1 gives you the light of day. Where's Angelica?** _

_**WorkItGirl: I'm still here. Just bored. And kinda lonely :(** _

 

I'm staring up at the ceiling of the empty room. Aaron and Alex have gone out to take care of some errand Dean Adams is making them do. And Ben and Jon can't even come in here unless the guards are gone because they super steeled the vents and so they're nearly impossible to get off.

I glance out my window. Too risky without some form of rope. Then I shoot a look to the door. If only it were that easy but the guards are not exactly very fond of us.

Sighing, I walk over to the window and lift it up. No one is outside anymore, thank the lord. I look around helplessly until something on my left (towards the boys' window) catches my attention. There is a ledge between my room and theirs that had apparently gone unnoticed by all of us.

I bite my nails. Have I lost it?! What if I fall?? People did use to tell me that I was either intense or insane, so... maybe I haven't lost it yet?

Hastily, I take Aaron's desk chair and hold it against the knob, still locking the door just in case. Then I turn out all the lights to let them think I'm asleep. After, I climb out the window cautiously, stepping out onto the ledge and manuvering myself slowly over to Ben and Jon's window. As soon as I reach it, I knock on it.

There's shouting from the inside and I giggle a bit. Then the window opens and I tumble in backwards, rolling over Jon's bed and onto the newly repaired floor with him and Ben staring down at me in shock.

"How?!" Jon says when he's recovered from shock. Ben still hasn't, and I'm rising up to shake him out of it.

I point from where I've come. "There's a ledge out there that connects from my room to yours. Makes it easy to move around."

"There's a pipe out here too," Ben says, head out, "that points right at the ground." He sticks his head back in. "And I don't know about you two, but living off of  _that_ -" he gestures to the take out in the room, and raises an eyebrow - "is going to get real sickening real fast. Let's go get some real food!"

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

***

_"Aaron!" I cry out to him, looking around the rocky gloom. "Where are we?!"_

_He turns to look at me, forlorn. "I don't know, but we have to find the others. How did we get separated from them??"_

_I can only shrug._

_"Who's that?!"_

_We both jump at the young voices. Then three figures appear from the utter darkness under a low light. I recognize one of them._

_"Ellie!" I cry out. She gives me a faint smile before trying to soothe her companions. "Worry not, Theodosia and Phillip, they mean us no harm, I promise," she tells them sincerely._

_"Wait, are these the children that Roman often reminisced about?" asks Aaron. "The ones forced to succumb to the Deeper for one year?"_

_They nod solemnly. "So we're famous up there, it would appear," Phillip says._

_"Famous enough," Aaron says. "Now can you help us find our friends?"_

_Theodosia nods to him. "Follow us."_

***

"We're here," Aaron tells me, squeezing my hand to snap me out of my flashback. I glance over at him with a fatigued expression, and his face bleeds concern. "Alex, are you alright?"

I shrug. "I've been better."

Aaron sighs. "Did you flashback again?"

I nod. I can't fake it with him. He traces patterns across my trembling hand before leading me inside.

Within seconds we're at the front door and Aaron's knocking because I'm still in my own world for a bit. The door swings open and I see George in the doorway.

"Boys. Hello," he says, and steps aside. "Come in."

We both step inside, and I glance over at George, once I finally get my head out of where it was for the last few minutes or so. "So where are these kids we're babysitting?"

"Oh, they're all upstairs right now," Martha calls out from somewhere, and then she appears on the stairs, heading down. "You two can come up and say hello to them if you want. We have to rush out right now." She meets George downstairs at the doorway. "We'll be back by 10 p.m. Help yourselves to anything in the kitchen, and try not to break anything, okay? Oh, and watch out for Alex! He can get a bit riled up sometimes."

Oof. Martha's feral tomcat usually proved to be a menace whenever he was around. Even if you try to avoid him, it proves to be quite hard. You can hardly be nice to him without him attacking! Face it: she named it after me, and now we have the human disaster in cat form.

As soon as they leave, Aaron and I look around warily before dashing up the steps in an attempt to avoid the cat. Then we start slowly looking around upstairs for where the kids would be.

Down by the far end of the hall there is a door cracked open and light pours out. We glance at one another before heading off to it.

Aaron doesn't even touch the knob before a scream suddenly pierces the air and he falls backward into me. I manage to sturdy us both so we don't go crashing to the ground. I push it open myself.

A young girl stands on the bed, shivering in fear, pointing to a corner of the room and shrieking, "Where is it?! Get it back in the cage!"

One of the boys turns to her with an annoyed expression. "Theo, she won't appreciate you calling her an 'it' all the time!"

"Pip, we do not have time for gendering runaway lizards!" the other boy snaps, in an accent. "We have to find Liz or Theo will never come down from there!"

It's at this inconvenient time that the alleged lizard in question has made its way to Aaron's leg by then. I look down and see it there and try not to gasp audibly.

Too late.

Aaron sees it too. He lets out a shriek, attempting to jump back away from her and knocking us both over in the process. Liz crawls over my face and I grab her before she can even try running off.

"Hey!" The three kids are looking over at us now. Aaron stands up shivering, and then helps me up only grabbing one of my hands, obviously the one sans lizard. Then we face the kids ourselves.

The boy who gendered the lizard walks over first. His hair's curliness rivals John, as do the freckles littering his face. Both features are slightly darker. I hold out my hand with the lizard and he takes it, grinning at me as he does, so I see the gap in his teeth.  _It seems familiar somehow..._

"Thanks, mister! Liz usually gets much farther than that and it's always some big hunt!" He extends his other hand to me. "I'm Phillip, but you can call me Pip or Phil if you want!"

I chuckle, shaking the hand. "Nice to meet you, Phil. I'm Alexander, but you can call me Alex. And this is Aaron." I gesture to the man in question behind me, who is waving timidly at Phillip.

"Oh, you're the one Mom named the cat after!"

I nod.

"Not that we are not grateful or anything," says the other boy, as he stands up straight, "but why are you even here?"

Aaron answers this. "You parents called and asked us to babysit."

"Oh. Cool," he replies, with a two-fingered half-salute. "I am Georges, and that over there — " he points to the girl who is now sitting on the bed looking calmer — "is Theodosia. But she prefers Theo."

Theo waves at us.

"You have the same name as a friend of ours," I say.  _Why do I think I've seen her and Phil before?_ "She lives on the other side of D.C. — at least, for now she does."

"You must miss her, yes?" asks Georges.

Aaron nods. "We do, quite a lot. You sound like a friend of ours as well, but he's in D.C. with Theodosia. And Phil looks similar to another friend of ours who is out there with them."

Georges raises a brow. "How many of these friends of yours are out there?"

"Six," I reply. "They're moving here within the year though." Then I glance around. "What else do you guys do around here besides lizard hide-and-seek?"

All of us laugh at that. "Usually, they end up playing video games while I read. Then we catch up on TV shows or use the trampolines outside. But that last thing usually depends on what day of the week it is." At this, Theo darts her eyes as if there were spies. "Every day," she whispers, "there's a chance that Mrs. Payne will come out and graveyard stare everyone into submission. If you try to do anything fun when she's around, she will attack!"

"Who's Mrs. Payne?" Aaron and I ask in unison.

Theo finally gets up from the bed, running to me and immediately grabbing my hand in fear. There is a spark as she looks up at me with wide eyes, with a hint of recognition. Then she continues. "Ever heard of Dolley Payne? This is her spinster mother, who always seems to have bad luck ever keeping a boyfriend, or a husband alive. All that rejection turned her bitter, and were really the only fun things she looked forward to. Now that it's gone — and too late to fix — for her, she ruins everyone else's fun. Painfully."

"Last time we were outside when she was stalking about," Phillip says, hanging onto Aaron like his life depended on it, "she came at us with her rake. She didn't get me or Theo, but Georges came away with some bad scars." He gestures to him, who has lifted his sleeves to show them off.

"Okay, so we won't go outside yet then," Aaron says, but I peer out the window that overlooks the witch's house to not see her there. I point.

"She's not out there right now," I say. "Let's go jump first, the. we can catch up on TV. Please?"

Theo sighs. "Fingers crossed this isn't one of her days."

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

We're barely past the threshold when all three of the children let out a bloodcurdling scream.

The remains of four trampolines are littered about the lawn. And standing above it all with a sledgehammer is none other than crochety Mrs. Paine herself, grime across her clown lips, hair sticking up in a 50s bob, and dress torn by some of the remaining metal.

"Going somewhere?" she asks, in a gross tone that sounds like she is gurgling saliva as she talks.

Aaron finds his words first. "You can't just destroy other people's property!" He walks over to the small fence that separated her yard from theirs. "You wouldn't like it if I just jumped this fence and trampled your flowers, would you?"

"You wouldn't dare, you despicable being!" she cries out. 

"Why shouldn't we?!" I cry out, joining Aaron at the fence. "You clearly have no disregard for anyone else's property, so why should anyone respect yours?" I lean against the fence a bit smugly as she stares at me for a moment. "But guess what? We're not you. We don't destroy property for no reason!"

Phillip suddenly looks alarmed. "Alex, wait! Get off the fence! It's a bit unstable!"

I immediately jump back up. Unfortunately, the cat chooses now to come bolting out the door. As soon as he sees Mrs. Payne, he yowls and runs right at me, jumping up and sinking claws into me.

" _Ow!_ " I cry out, falling back against the already rickety fence, knocking three panels of it down and flat onto Old Lady Payne's yard. And she is furious. She marches over and throws me and the cat aside, picking up the fence to reveal squashed tulips there. 

"Why would you plant anything right next to the fence anyway?" Theo asks. "Seems inconvenient to me."

"It wasn't inconvenient for _them!"_ She throws one panel of the fence at us as all of us roll out of the way in the nick of time t. see her pick up her sledgehammer.

"Run for it!" Georges cries. "She is as invincible as a Smash Brother!"

We know what that means. All five of us are at a dead run, screaming as we rush inside to safety.

Or so we think.

_Crash!_

She jams the rake in the door and we jump back.

"Dad's going to kill her this time!" Phil says, pointing at it. "That's a new door!"

"This witch will kill us first if we do not — how you say — scram!" Georges says, grabbing Theo by the hand.

"Scatter!" Aaron yells, and the kids take off to their parents' room as we run up to theirs, hiding in the closet before she can open up and spot us. We know we're not clear yet...

" _Where are you?!_ "

}~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~{

"Mission success!" I cry out triumphantly. Ben and Jon both cheer.

The three of us are on the path to the backside of King's, getting ready to climb back up to the boys' window. No more plain Chinese. All of us carry two bags each of groceries from The Royal Mart. Pizza rolls, rice, and a nice lasagna? My mouth waters already.

As soon as we reach the pipe, I ask, "Who will go up first?"

"I will," says Jon. He hands one back each to both of us, to avoid the dewy grass, before climbing swiftly up the pipe. Ben ties up the bags and throws them up to him, one at a time.

"Me next," Ben says, and hands his bags to me. It takes him a bit longer to get up but he manages. Then I throw his bags and mine up there so I start to climb up.

I'm almost halfway up when my phone vibrates roughly in my pocket causing me to fall off of the pipe. Annoyed, I glance down at my phone to see a text from Aaron:

_**OohBurrn: srry angie. alex and i are kinda held up on our job... might not b back till ltr tmrw.**_

I raise an eyebrow to that. What on earth did they get themselves into?

"Angie??" I look up. Ben and Jon are looking at me, still lying flat on my back. I stand up and dust myself off. "What are still doing down there??"

"I fell," I say simply. I get my bearings about me and climb up to the ledge. But I don't get to jump into their window, because something yanks me back into mine.

 _Oof!_ I hit the ground reallllly hard, eyes shut tight in pain. It takes moments before I open them. A guard stands over me. I peer over and see the door still locked with the chair in place.

"Excuse me, but how did you get in here?!" I cry out. He merely points out the window I'd just been pulled through. Now how he figured that out I would never know.

That's how I get stuck on guard watch,for the next week. Ben and Jon are in their rooms, same situation as me. But Aaron and Alex were stuck in situations much more severe... until our friends rescued us.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yep, Dolley's mom is evil


End file.
